Hampton School District seeks 2.87 percent budget increase

HAMPTON — The Hampton School District warrant will be going forward with little contention, with one amendment that passed almost unanimously.

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By Nick B. Reid

seacoastonline.com

By Nick B. Reid

Posted Feb. 5, 2013 at 9:27 PM
Updated Feb 5, 2013 at 9:38 PM

By Nick B. Reid

Posted Feb. 5, 2013 at 9:27 PM
Updated Feb 5, 2013 at 9:38 PM

» Social News

HAMPTON — The Hampton School District warrant will be going forward with little contention, with one amendment that passed almost unanimously.

The amended article was No. 4, which originally sought to raise $859,000 for an addition to Centre School. The amendment lowered that appropriation to $588,600 based on a recent bid from Milford-based Turnstone Corp.

“We have now been able to take in executable contracts and calculate any of the other costs, including architectural fees and some contingencies,” SAU 90 Business Administrator Nathan Lunney said.

Lunney said the property tax impact would be about 21 cents, which translates to a one-time $68 tax increase on a $320,000 home. If it is approved, the project should be completed by the beginning of the 2013-14 school year, according to Lunney.

The addition would allow the school to take music instruction out of a “substandard” 380-square-foot space, Lunney said, and put it in “an appropriate classroom area” based on the number of students at the school, which isn't expected to change.

“Our enrollment projections show that the current conditions that we sit with are not going to change in the next 10 years or so,” Lunney said.

Article 1 deals with the operating budget, seeking a 2.87 percent, or $504,000, increase over last year's spending level.

“The two biggest cost drivers in this budget were contracted salary increases … for teachers and paraprofessionals, and, the most significant, which I'm sure you've heard talk about on the town side as well, is changes in the contributions required of employers to the New Hampshire retirement system,” Lunney said.

He said more than $300,000 of the proposed spending increase is related to the retirement system and more than $200,000 is linked to salary increases.

“The ballooning of the budget was related to what we call gross appropriations. To comply with state law, the Hampton School District added $600,000 in this proposed budget related to federal grants … and another $55,000 to our food service budget,” Lunney said, noting that those accounts are self-funded and will have no tax impact.

When discussion began on Article 6, which would send $39,500 to Sacred Heart School to support Hampton-based students, Budget Committee member Mark McFarlin spoke up against it.

“I understand the history of this article in town to be one that was petitioned quite some time ago, when we had a much larger number of students at Sacred Heart and the voters deemed, as they may do now, that it made financial sense to do so. We couldn't assimilate that number of students into our school system without costing more than what the article was asking for,” McFarlin said.

But he said since there are only 39 Hampton students at Sacred Heart now, and they are spread throughout a number of grades, they could be “easily” moved into SAU 90 schools at no additional cost.

“In this time of being frugal and pinching pennies within our local school district, I have a hard time sending money away to another school that is a complete choice of parents,” McFarlin said.

He also questioned how Sacred Heart spent the money, but Lunney said the spending is regulated the same way it is in schools within the district.

Resident Jerry Znoj said that Article 6 is “a very good article” and that it is “very cost effective” for the town to continue funding it.

McFarlin said, “It's costing us $39,000 this year. These children would not cost the school district more should they be enrolled at Centre School and Marston.”

Clifton Pratt, chairman of the clock committee, spoke on behalf of Article 5, which would authorize the School Board to lease a portion of the Centre School lawn to the town for the purpose of putting a historic clock there.

“This is the final step in locating the clock,” Pratt said. “This is where the committee decided is the best place.”

Article 3 seeks to move $75,000 from the unreserved fund balance to the existing Special Education Expendable Trust Fund established at 2010 Town Meeting. Lunney noted that a $300,000 cap was put on the fund in 2012 “as a way to communicate good faith to the community that this wasn't a never-ending fund.” He said there was $209,553 in the account as of December 2012.

Article 2, which seeks to raise $300,000 for long-term maintenance and modernization work on the three schools, drew no comments and will go to the ballot unamended.

The articles will be decided by a vote at Town Meeting on Tuesday, March 12.